STEP 1: CONFIGURE AZURE MEDIA SERVICE

First, create an Azure Media Service, as described in Step 1 of this article.

Open your Azure Media Service and select "Live Streaming" from the menu to open the "Live Streaming" blade, as shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

In the "Live Streaming" blade, click the [Quick create] button (Fig. 2) to open the "Quick Create Channel" blade, as shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

At the "Name" field, enter a name for this channel.

Verify that the "Automatically start the channel after creation" checkbox is checked.

Click the [Create] button to create the channel.

After a few minutes, the channel will display with a status of "Running" in the list on the "Live Streaming" blade, as shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4

NOTE: The Quick Create option creates a channel with RTMP protocol, Pass Through encoding, and no IP restrictions on viewing the stream. This works fine in many cases; but, if you would like different settings, you can click the [Custom create] button instead.

Click the channel in the list to open a blade for that channel's details, as shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5

Note the INGEST URL (Primary) field. You will need this in your streaming software. The icon to the right allows you to copy this value to your clipboard.

Click the [Live event] button (Fig. 6) at the top of the Channel blade to open the "Live Event" blade, as shown in Fig. 7

Fig. 6

Fig. 7

At the "Name" field, enter a name for your Live Event. It must be unique for this channel.

Click the [OK] button to create and start the live event.

PART 2: STREAMING SOFTWARE

You will need to configure your streaming software to stream to Azure Media Service. The instructions below are for Wirecast, but you may use any streaming software you like.

Launch Wirecast.

From the menu, select Output | Output Settings.

If prompted, set the Destination to "RTMP Server" and click [OK], as shown in Fig. 6

Fig. 8

The "Output Settings" window displays, as shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 9

In the "Address" field, paste the INGEST URL (Primary) value from the Azure Media Service channel blade from Step 1.

The Layers are at the bottom of the Wirecast UI. Select the [+] icon to the left of the first layer, as shown inf Fig. 8.